Three minutes later, I'm surfing the tv channels, tossing some laundry in the wash, or defrosting dinner.
The bed in the next room looks so warm and cozy.
Maybe I'll make a snack...
Time's up!
My children arrive home from school. No work is done. Working at home doesn't always work.
In the world of laptops and smart phones, work-at-home jobs can be done anywhere. I will work from home if I must (after doing chores and with all entertainment turned off).
But I would rather work somewhere else. Mostly, I frequent the local library, since it is quiet and free. There's also a great little coffee shop near my kids' school.
For those of us who don't work in an office, self-discipline is so important.
I know what motivates me to work - a quiet, public place. If possible, I met a work at home friend to keep me on task. It's like my own little office.
What motivates you?
A timer? A deadline? A schedule?
Whatever it is, figure it out.
It will change your work life for the better.
Etcetera.
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Featured at: Small Victories Sunday
Kristy, I know the feeling. There really are way too many distractions at home. I really have no excuses because I have teens who are out of the house all morning, and yet I feel that there are not enough hours in the day in order to do this job properly. But I don't go sanywhere, instead I try to work and then take small breaks in between because too much screen time is exhausting. When I break I usually watch shows with the kids or work on my projects for the blog. Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteMy kids are out of the house all day at school, except for holidays or summers. So I have no excuse either! :) You are not alone.
ReplyDeleteI've been working from home since April of last year. It's weird because before I worked at home, I would always have the TV on or some other kind of background noise going except when I was sleeping. That didn't work from a concentration standpoint, so I started working in silence. Now, most of the time, I don't turn on background noise even when I'm not working. (I live alone, so it's easier to do that than those of y'all with full houses.)
ReplyDeleteI find that working with multiple screens is too important to my work, so leaving the house or even my desk to relocate to another part of the house is a struggle. However, I can tell that I pick up some stress from thinking about the things that I need to do around the place. I also find that I struggle with finding the motivation to clean house since I've already been in my house working for 9 or so hours anyway each day. (Any tips?)
On the plus side, I definitely love being able to work in yoga pants most days! :) (Web conferences ensure that I put on a real top, though...at least part of the day. LOL!)
I actually do work outside the home, but I write, too, so this post applies to me in that I try to treat writing as my other job. That's very hard to do at home, though. I find that I sometimes can get more writing done while I'm at my day job than I can at home. (Sometimes, because while I'm there, the day job has to come first, of course.)
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm at home in the evenings and on weekends, it's especially hard to stay off the internet. YouTube has become an addiction. I really have to watch myself, or I will get lost on it for hours and forget everything else. I used to lose myself like that in writing, and I miss that. :(
That's why I'm trying really hard to build my planner habit. I know it could help me get my writing time back. And the more time I spend writing, the more joy I can find in it. :)
I am good as long as I do not turn the television on in the bedroom. Or I will be sucked in for a while.
ReplyDeleteI'm retired and I loved working from home. I got so much more done at home because I did not have all the interruptions from people coming in to visit. I barely stopped for lunch or breaks. I would love to work from home again if I could find a part time job doing it.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could work from home. You're very fortunate to have this opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI can relate right now. I have gone from being super focused at home to being easily distracted. I've been "working" all morning and all I have accomplished is a bubble bath and a snack. Ooops!
ReplyDeleteI can relate. For me it is working on my novel though. It is very easy to get distracted by other things.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate. As long as I keep my social media pages closed, I can usually get some work done. Having my to-do list by me also helps. Thanks for linking up with #smallvictoriessunday
ReplyDeleteHaving work/home boundaries was so much easier when I went to work, then returned home when the work was finished. There was a little bit I would do at home, but basically those two things were separate. I was in a situation where I was homeschooling my kids, and doing various tasks for our mission/non-profit. My problem was that it was too easy to let things with homeschool, household, and things like that slide, and focus too much on the work aspect.
ReplyDeleteAt one point, I did a "time inventory" and realized my problem. Part of it was a lack of focus- brought on by being too reactive instead of proactive. I had to slowly learn how to change that, how to protect my time (saying no), clump tasks together, and be more disciplined about home stuff.
I didn't have the option to go somewhere else to work, but found other ways to put boundaries on myself (and to protect my time.) One thing I did was put a sign on our door for school hours, and made sure people knew the times that I would be available outside of school. I set aside time on 2 afternoons a week for certain types of tasks, and regretfully declined those at other times.
It's a learning process for me, but I'm learning lessons that are helping me with time management in general.
I work from home as well so I know the feeling! Right now I don't have kids so that helps but I'm planning a wedding and working on moving into a house I just bought with my fiancé. So many distractions! I think after the wedding I'll set up more of a routine with official work hours to keep me on task. It's nice to go out to a coffee shop or something every so often. It's kind of like a work power hour for me. I get so much done!
ReplyDeleteI used to work from home three days a week for the full time job I had. It was wonderful to have the flexibility but it was easy to get distracted. I had to lock myself at my desk and really I think I worked more because I was more accessible by my boss because I always had my work with me. I think I would be more distracted if I was at the library, being that I am a book blogger :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing with Small Victories Sunday Linkup and congrats on being one of our FEatured Bloggers this weekend!
I work from home, too. I agree it's hard to stay focused sometimes! I like the library idea, maybe I'll try it! Thanks for sharing at the manic Mondays blog hop :)
ReplyDeleteI have the exact same problem! I'm always amazed at how much I can get done just by going to Starbucks! Thanks so much for linking up with us at Share The Wealth Sunday!
ReplyDeletexoxo
Lisa @ Fun Money Mom
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